Triple Oak Power and Fred Ruskin Were not Forthcoming about Actual Intent

They stood before the Yavapai County Planning & Zoning Commission on March 20, 2025, and told us these four MET towers were nothing to worry about - just temporary tools for gathering wind data.

They highlighted a letter of support from the Seligman Chamber of Commerce (problematically obtained without full disclosure). They noted they had sent notices to neighbors and received only five responses (mostly simple questions about whether towers would be on their own property) plus two letters of opposition. When commissioners asked what these towers would actually lead to, the response from Triple Oak’s CEO was evasive: it was “too early” to give specific numbers on future turbines. They floated the vague possibility of “multiple hundreds of megawatts” but quickly added that everything would be limited by topography, transmission lines, and environmental constraints.

They minimized the impacts at every turn. The towers would be up for five years at most, then removed. Installation would be quick, operation silent and mostly remote, with almost no ongoing traffic or disruption. Fred Ruskin, the ranch owner, spoke about preserving hunting access and how previous wind efforts on the property had stalled. The whole presentation painted a picture of a small, low-impact, reversible data project on private land.

That was the story they sold in 2025.

Now read the certified letters they mailed to residents in June 2026 for the full Camino Madre project.

They openly state there will be approximately 350 workers on site during construction - a massive industrial footprint. After completion, they plan for 15 workers to operate the facility. This directly contradicts what they implied in the P&Z hearing, where nearly all operations were described as remote with minimal site visits. They now admit residents will experience equipment traffic, dust, noise, and visual impacts during construction and ongoing operations.

And that’s just the beginning. The current proposal includes not only 76 massive turbines (around 660 feet tall) but also solar arrays and a large lithium battery storage facility on site - turning this historic ranch land into a full-scale industrial renewable energy complex.

This is the contrast that matters.
In 2025 they downplayed it as four temporary poles with almost no footprint.
In 2026 they acknowledge hundreds of workers, heavy equipment, dust, noise, permanent visual changes, solar arrays, and large-scale battery storage.

The test towers were never just about data. They were the first step in a much larger industrial plan they were not ready to fully disclose at the time. The public record shows exactly how the scale and impacts were minimized then - and how they are now being laid out in black and white.We deserve better than this kind of phased reveal. The community has every right to demand full transparency and real consideration of what this project will actually do to our rural landscape, our quiet skies, and our way of life here.